Now that the regular season is over and the playoffs are about to begin, it’s time to hand out some hardware. We here at The Boston Hockey Blog decided it would be fun to pick our own winners for each of the Hockey East awards, so we decided to tally up all our votes and see what we came up with.
Some decisions were easily agreed upon, some featured minor disagreements that we were able to talk through and still others nearly resulted in the four of us coming to blows. OK, that last one might be a slight exaggeration, but as you’ll see, there were definitely a few spots where we couldn’t come to any sort of consensus and had to leave the results as a split.
Without further ado, here are our picks.
Player of the Year: Paul Thompson (UNH)
Arielle: This was an easy pick, as the four of us voted unanimously for Thompson. The Wildcat senior led the league in scoring (23-19-42), tied for first in power-play points (18), finished first in the nation in power-play goals (12) and finished first in the league in game-winning goals (7). Thompson is one of the top candidates for the Hobey Baker Award and spearheaded a UNH attack that helped the Wildcats battle BC for first place all season long.
Coach of the Year: Mark Dennehy (Merrimack)
Sam: This award was Dennehy’s to lose down the stretch, and he nearly did when his team lost three of its last four to drop from a tie for second to fourth. But consider for a moment the body of work. Dennehy’s squad was the only top-four team in Hockey East (BC, UNH and BU being the other top-four squads) to have a winning record against the other three teams. Those performances against top competition helped to vault the Warriors to a 16-8-3 record in conference play and into the top 10 nationally. Not bad for a team that finished last season with a losing record (12-13-2), and you can bet the barn that Dennehy had a big hand in that turnaround. Scott made a push for BC’s Jerry York, whose Eagles became the first Hockey East team in 17 years to win 20 regular-season league games, but he was ultimately willing to cede to the 3-1 vote.
Rookie of the Year: Garrett Noonan (BU)/Charlie Coyle (BU)/Michael Pereira (UMass)
Arielle: This was the choice that we disagreed on the most, and none of us were willing to concede our own choices. Jake and I were the only two to agree in this category, as we picked Noonan. Noonan came into BU without too much hype, and he has morphed into one of the most solid defensemen on the team this season. Jack Parker has told us frequently this season, whether after a practice or after a game, that he is very impressed with Noonan and thinks he has been the most consistent defenseman for the Terriers all season. Noonan does not look like a freshman when he takes the ice. He’s solid in his own end and is starting to contribute offensively as well. We debated over Coyle and Pereira for this as well, and while those two have definitely racked up the point totals and made a big impact for their teams offensively, they were expected to do as much. Noonan was more of a surprise and continually impressed Jake and me all season long. It is pretty unlikely that a defenseman will win Rookie of the Year, but this is more of our opinion rather than who we expect to win.
Sam: I’ll admit it. I was the only one on our panel to vote Coyle as the conference Rookie of the Year. But hear me out. Coyle’s 21 points (6 goals, 15 assists) in conference play rank first among rookies, beating out Pereira’s total by just one point. That may be a small margin, but Coyle’s point total was also second on his entire team, behind Alex Chiasson’s 29, while Pereira is third on his squad in conference points. BU’s offense ranked fifth in Hockey East in scoring while UMass was further down the ladder at seventh. Simply put, Coyle was a bigger part of a better offense. As for Noonan, I just can’t get over the three game misconducts (assuming his latest stands) and lesser stats (8 points, +3 rating).
Scott: Jake, Arielle and Sam all went with BU guys. Although their picks of Noonan and Coyle, not to mention Adam Clendening as well, all made big contributions to the Terriers this year, I’m going with UMass’ Pereira. Pereira led the Minutemen and all Hockey East freshmen with 10 goals in conference play. He also topped UMass with a plus-5 rating. Pereira was a huge reason the Minutemen, who lost 66.7 percent of their goals from last season, managed to make the playoffs. Although it’s true that Coyle had more points in a better offense and ranked second on his team as opposed to Pereira ranking third, it’s also true that Coyle had a lot more to work with. He has played on BU’s top line for the vast majority of the season, while Pereira has rarely played with either of UMass’ top two scorers (Danny Hobbs and T.J. Syner). Ultimately, I feel that Pereira has had a bigger impact on his team than any other freshman has had on his respective team.
Best Defensive Defenseman: Matt Campanale (UNH)
Scott: All four of us agreed on this one. Campanale finished the season with a plus-19 rating in league play, which was second only to the guy we’ll get to with the next award. Perhaps more impressively, that plus-19 put him eight ahead of anyone else on the Wildcats, marking the largest margin between first and second on any Hockey East team. And Campanale did all that while only spending 12 minutes in the penalty box this season. There’s pretty much nothing else you could ask for when it comes to this award.
Best Defensive Forward: Brian Gibbons (BC)
Scott: This was also a consensus decision. Gibbons led the conference with a plus-20 rating in conference play. Beyond the stats, though, you don’t have to watch too many Eagles games to realize how good Gibbons is in all three zones. He rarely gets caught up ice and almost seems like a third defenseman because he’s always in good position in his own zone. If anyone wants to show a young center what it means to be all over the ice, just have them watch Gibbons for a game. The only knock on Gibbons would be that he takes too many penalties, but it’s not nearly enough to make this much of a contest for us.
Best Individual Sportsmanship: Chris Connolly (BU)
Sam: This is the toughest category to choose because each coach selects a candidate from his team and the conference coaches then select a winner from those 10. But if it were up to us, Connolly would not only get the nod for BU, but also the entire conference. The Terrier junior captain’s six penalty minutes are not only near the bottom of the barrel for the entire conference, but they are also tied for the fewest among those in Hockey East who are lucky enough to bare the ‘C’ on their sweater with UMass-Lowell’s Scott Campbell, who actually only played in 10 conference games this season due to injury. Put that discipline together with the quality leadership he displayed this season in guiding BU to third in the standings, and that’s as good a sportsman as you could want.
Best Team Sportsmanship: UNH
Arielle: This is awarded to the team with the lowest average penalty minutes per game over the course of the season, so all we had to do was look at the final statistics. UNH just edged out UMass-Lowell for this award, finishing with 10.1 penalty minutes per game, while the River Hawks finished with 10.7.
First Team Forwards: Paul Thompson (UNH), Cam Atkinson (BC), Gustav Nyquist (Maine)
Jake: Considering Thompson was a unanimous Player of the Year choice among our esteemed panel, he’s a no-brainer for First Team Hockey East honors. Atkinson was also a unanimous choice, though I know I at least hesitated some in picking him over linemate Gibbons. In the end, we selected both Atkinson and Nyquist over Gibbons, though, with Nyquist getting first-team votes from all of us except Arielle, who snuck Gibbons onto her ballot as well.
First Team Defense: Brian Dumoulin (BC), Blake Kessel (UNH)
Jake: Dumoulin was a unanimous selection for first-team honors, and for good reason. The sophomore led all Hockey East defensemen with 23 points and was one of the best defensive blue-liners in the league to boot. Kessel earned first-team votes from all of us except Arielle (who apparently likes to be different and voted for Campanale) thanks to a similar resume to Dumoulin. Eighteen points and good defensive-zone play? We’ll take that any day.
First Team Goaltender: Kieran Millan (BU)/John Muse (BC)
Scott: All four of us agreed that this was very close between Millan and Muse, but none of us could be talked into changing our minds. Sam and Jake stood by their votes for Muse, while Arielle and I stood by ours for Millan. It’s true that Muse finished with a goals-against average that was half a goal better than Millan’s (1.84 to 2.34), but Arielle and I feel that stat has a lot to do with the fact that Muse has a much better defense in front of him. Millan’s save percentage was just one point lower than Muse’s (.933 to .932), but Millan did that while facing an astounding 239 more shots. In fact, Millan faced more shots (799) than any other goalie in the conference and still managed to give up the second-fewest goals among the eight goalies who played at least 1,000 minutes this season. That’s just an incredible stat. In my and Arielle’s opinion, Millan was more important to his team than any other Hockey East goalie.
Sam: Jake and I understand the argument for Millan. He is arguably the Terriers’ MVP this season, yadda yadda yadda. But how can you keep the conference leader in goals-against average (1.84), save percentage (.933), shutouts (4) and winning percentage (.804) off the First Team? Even if Muse does play behind one of the best defenses in the conference, the senior has to be more than a little responsible for putting up such gaudy numbers.
Second Team Forwards: Brian Gibbons (BC), Chris Barton (Merrimack), Wade MacLeod (Northeastern)
Scott: We were all in agreement on Gibbons — Arielle even gave him a vote for the First Team. In addition to his defensive prowess mentioned above, he tied for third with 36 points (10g, 26a) in league play. There were some minor disagreements over the final two spots, as Merrimack’s Stephane Da Costa and BU’s Alex Chiasson also received votes initially, but we ultimately decided on Barton and MacLeod. Barton finished fifth with 33 points (12g, 21a) and proved that he was by no means a product of Da Costa, as the two were on different lines for the entire second semester. MacLeod tied for seventh with 30 points (14g, 16a) and led the Huskies during their strong second-half run. Da Costa probably would’ve been a lock here if he hadn’t missed six games due to injury and ended up third on his own team in points in conference play, and Chiasson had fewer goals and more penalty minutes than MacLeod.
Second Team Defense: Matt Campanale (UNH), Jeff Dimmen (Maine)
Jake: Campanale received three second-team votes and one first-team vote (from Arielle). The 5-foot-11, 195-pound blue-liner was, in our opinion, the best defensive d-man in the league. There was some dissention at the second spot, with all of us but Scott hopping on the Dimmen bandwagon. Scott’s argument was that we were giving Dimmen too much credit for an outstanding 2009-10, pointing to his decreased point totals (although he still finished second among Hockey East defenders in goals), his five games missed due to injury and his average plus-minus rating versus his teammates. Scott pushed for Vermont’s Drew MacKenzie in Dimmen’s place, but in the end, Arielle, Sam and I felt Dimmen was still the better defender on a better defensive team.
Second Team Goaltender: Kieran Millan (BU)/John Muse (BC)
Scott: Those of us who voted Millan first had Muse second, and vice versa, so this was pretty easy to figure out. UNH’s Matt DiGirolamo warranted some consideration as well, as he ranked second in goals-against average (2.16) and third in save percentage (.931), but he hasn’t looked quite as impressive as Millan and Muse from what we’ve seen. An argument could be made for Merrimack’s Joe Cannata being the most talented goalie in the league, but his final stats (2.46 GAA, .913 save percentage) ended up being closer to the middle of the pack than the front of it.
Rookie Team Forwards: Charlie Coyle (BU), Michael Pereira (UMass), Mike Collins (Merrimack)
Arielle: We basically picked the forwards for this team based on their final point totals. Coyle led the league’s rookies in conference scoring with six goals and 15 assists for 21 points. Pereira wasn’t far behind him with 10 goals and 10 assists for 20 points, and Collins finished third with nine goals, 10 assists and 19 points. Northeastern’s Brodie Reid was also up for consideration, but he fell off in the last weekend of the season and ended up finishing sixth in freshman scoring behind BU’s Matt Nieto (7-11-18) and Sahir Gill (5-13-18) as well.
Rookie Team Defense: Adam Clendening (BU), Anthony Bitetto (Northeastern)
Sam: In an odd twist, Noonan ended up getting the most Rookie of the Year votes (2) from our panel, but didn’t get enough votes to make the Rookie Team, as neither Scott nor I picked him. Clendening and Bitetto earned three votes each to narrowly beat out Noonan. Bitetto was second in the conference among rookie defenders in points with 16 and was arguably the best all-around defenseman on a team that featured five underclassmen at the blue line. It gets sticky with the Clendening vs. Noonan arguments. Parker lauded Noonan all season for his even play at both ends of the rink, but it just seemed like Clendening had the higher ceiling as the season came to a close. Sure, there were some turnover issues first semester, but once Clendening stopped trying to do too much after not making the US World Junior team, he improved his play by leaps and bounds. He ended the season first among rookie defensemen with 17 points and actually had a higher plus/minus rating than Noonan (+6 vs. +3) even though the two were paired together for most of the season.
Rookie Team Goaltender: Dan Sullivan (Maine)
Sam: Probably the easiest call on this entire list outside of Team Sportsmanship. Sullivan was one of only three freshman netminders in Hockey East to play at least one-third of his team’s minutes, with UMass-Lowell’s Doug Carr and Marc Boulanger being the other two. Considering the River Hawks’ two goalies were 10th and 11th, respectively, in both goals-against average and save percentage during conference play, Sullivan’s third (2.28) and eighth (.904) rankings in those categories look almost Tim Thomas-esque. His three shutouts in league play don’t hurt either.
Individual Sportsmanship: Andy Glass!